We’ve all had the painful experience of being handed a brochure that was “designed” with Word Art (or the slightly less painful Pages). The “designer” (we’ll call him Larry) beams, happy to see that his arched, distorted, glowing type is burning holes in your hands. You wouldn’t make those mistakes, would you? Of course not! You are an experienced designer, right?

Right. That’s what Larry says.

Some of the best designers have been tripped up by simple mistakes when designing for print. Obviously, we aren’t just talking about WordArt. We’re talking about a design that looks great on the screen, but it sits next to Larry’s best when you try to transfer it to paper. These are some common mistakes that many designers unknowingly make when coming to the print world.

1. Designing in RGB

CMYK color

RGB color

The Problem

It is important to know that printers have eyes. Well… Sort of. Printers interpret data that is sent to them from an application or a device. That application or device outputs using a certain language, called a color space. The printer interprets the output, and then prints. So let’s say your Macbook Pro and CS4 are speaking Spanish, but your printer is speaking English. What basically happens: the printer listens, hears the Spanish, and tries its best to interpret it. Now, despite the fact that your printer may have taken AP Spanish in high school, it still doesn’t know every word in the dictionario.

The Fix

Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to fix this problem. On the first opening screen in Photoshop and Illustrator, you have the choice of working in RGB or CMYK. Pick CMYK if your design will ever make it to the print world.

Photoshop settings for print design

A word about color spaces…

Without going much into detail, RGB refers to two different color gamuts (sRGB and Adobe RGB), both based on modeling light to produce colors. Red, green, and blue light can theoretically be added together to create any color of light, the “100%” mixture resulting in white. The natural “blank canvas” of RGB is black, or an absence of light.

On the other hand, CMYK is based on mixing four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and “key,” an old printing press term for black) to theoretically reproduce any color. The natural blank canvas for CMYK is paper.

Unfortunately, there are colors that cannot be reproduced in the gamut of CMYK that exist in the gamut of RGB, particularly brighter colors, especially in the cyan area. This is where we run into our problem. Simply put, RGB speaks better spanish than CMYK. There’s tons of literature on color management available online or in print. (Note: CMS, in the print world, stands for color management system.)

2. Forgetting to use Rich Black

The Problem

If there is an unforgivable sin, this would be it. Again, a simple understanding of CMYK is needed.
A printer takes the CMYK info it is sent and puts out ink according to that info. CMYK value refers to a set of 4 numbers between one and 100 representing the amount of each color mixed in to achieve the desired color. So you would immediately guess that k=100 would mean black, right?Larry said so.

K=100 produces a dark grey that is definitively not black.

The Fix

Once again, easy fix; use values for rich black. Rich black mixes in some cyan, magenta, and/or yellow to darken the 100% Key. There are many different opinions on what is best, but there are basically two kinds; warm and cool. Generally accepted values (in order of CMY) are 70, 50, 30 (known as “designer black”), 60, 40, 40 (cool black) and 40, 60, 40, (warm black). All of these are mixed with k=100.

Some people say that a “C” value of 40 and a k value of 100 does the trick just fine; the point is to add some kind of extra into your blacks to make them… well, black.

Do NOT use rich black for smaller text; registration problems (where one cmyk ink prints slightly in the wrong place) will make your text unreadable. And no one wants that. Usually using k=100 for black text is readable enough.

Another neat trick: if your text is large enough that you want to use rich black, but is just small enough that registration may pose a threat, outline your text with .5 or 1 pt of k=100. This will take care of the registration problems. Note: the outline should be on the inside and should replace the original area it lays over, so that your text is not improperly displayed.

3. Using the wrong resolution

A low resolution will show pixelation both on screen and in print

Using high-resolution images ensures clarity

The Problem

Using the wrong resolution in your works can be detrimental to your final outcome. It is important to know the final destination of your work so that you can design at the correct resolution. Most printers print at about 300dpi (dots per inch), some even at 600dpi or above. The resolution of a monitor is 72ppi (pixels per inch), and is a default setting in Photoshop and Illustrator for RGB design.

A few things to note…

So let’s talk about some basic differences between dpi and ppi, and then decide what is best to use for different projects.

Simply put, pixels are square, dots are… well, dots. They consist of one color. Obviously, the more dots or pixels per inch, the more detailed and accurate your picture will be. It is important to design at 300ppi so that when you print on a 300 dpi printer, each pixel is translated as a dot. It is okay to design at a higher ppi than your printer’s dpi, but be careful designing below 300ppi.

The Fix

Unless you are designing something huge, the magic number for print design is… you guessed it, 300dpi. Generally, anything that you can hold in your hands should be designed at or above 300dpi. It is especially important to note that though you can go down in dpi, you cannot go up without quality loss (when working with rasterized elements). Therefore, as long as your processor can handle it, it is best practice to work at 300 dpi or the maximum for your specific printer.

Depending on the size of a particular piece, you may have to design for perspective resolution. In other words, a billboard, from the road, appears to be a couple of inches wide, so therefore the dpi can be much lower (often around 18-20 dpi).

The End.

There are a million more mistakes that can be made in print design, but these are three of the most-often committed sins of print design.

Last tip: to avoid mistakes, ALWAYS proof your prints, even if it costs you a little extra.

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Great article, however, I must disagree with the first item on the list. No, we shouldn’t be sending files in RGB – but we can – and is sometimes very beneficial to design in RGB first before converting to CMYK. I have written a rather popular article about it here (if you don’t mind the link):

It’s fair depending of where the output will be done, when you make a short run in a digital offset like in a Xerox Docucolor EPS files in RGB mode are more accurate in color than CMYK, but this is only valid to EPS, this accuracy is compared to the print in regular Offset where the print are in CMYK, mostrly the problems with the color mode happens in the CTF’s or CTP’s is there where the most problems are.
I do design in RGB you have pointed the advantages, but keep in mind when the output will be printed the gamut is narrowed so the posible beautiful color will look diferent printed due to the CMYK smaller gamut. what I do is set my document in RGB but the color mix is using CMYK values, anyway the files will go to print in an offset that only speaks CMYK.

I design a lot for print, specifically packaging and point of purchase, so I have gotten in the habit of designing in CMYK. If, God forbid, I forget to do so and have to convert from RGB to CMYK, it can be a pain in the butt to go back and revise colors. Design converted to CMYK always seems more drab that those created in CMYK.

Great article! I see these common mistakes in a lot of really great designers, but it is mainly because so many designers are use to producing work for web and interactive media rather than print these days.

Hi, just a couple of points on the above article. First I agree with Andrew, it can be fine to leave a job in rgb all the way through the workflow, as long as the right colour profiles are being used, and the colour workflow has been correctly setup. Then, just before output convert to cmyk. I understand that the above article is perhaps general advice that a newbie designer or Larry may find useful. My second point is regarding the rich black. The article say 100% K is dark grey and not black, this depends on the stock it’s being printed on and the press that is printing the job. It’s easily acheivable to produce a black (not dark grey) using just 100% K, it just depends on stock and how good your print house is. Adding additional colours to K is fine but I would only recommend adding a 40% tint of 1 other process colour (normally cyan). If you start adding 40%+ of each process colour you get to a stage where there is to much ink on the sheet, the black can look muddy and the stock can ‘buckle’. This is called ‘ink density’ and the standard maximum limit is 290%. You examples of C=70 M=50 Y=30 K=100 add up to an ink density of 250%. Although this is within the recommended limit, you may end up in a situation where you have to much ink on the sheet for a particular type of stock.

Yes, these definitely are huge red flags that separate the amateurs from a professional designer.

However, any designer will tell that there are significant differences in properly setting up a print job for a 1-2 color run versus 4+ color run. Black specification for a 1-2 color job is NOT the same as using super back for a 4+ run. And the CMKY specification for a 1-2 plate separation is just plain ignorant — because it’s about the PMS ink!

As for the RGB vs CMYK on high-end digital printers: I’ve been using computer-to-plate and high-end digital output for years and the best advise I can provide is PROOF, PROOF, PROOF. I’ve been on site during a press check or proofing stage and have been able to work directly with the technician to ensure colors are output as intended. Many printers will ask for a target PMS swatch to ensure accuracy.

if you use rich black for text heavy design (a magazine for example), you will drive the press operator crazy as he/she tries to get all 4 colors of 10 point text in perfect register. For text-heavy items it is better to use regular process black (0:0:0:100) or run the risk of blurry, mis-registered type.

also, the standard rich black mix for most print shops is (60:40:40:100)—although some shops specify a different mix.

i think there are many more deadly sins like some designers dont use crop marks & bleed by whole colored cover, dont embed fonts by export or dont break fonts to shapes… but these three are enough on the start to be a ‘print design master’ :)

A high-resolution is not always good in print: For newspaper ads/photo’s/etc. keep in mind that the paper will make your designs 20% more yellow and 30% more dark. (Ofcourse you can use UCR/GCR/ICC tools) but extra: the best results for photo’s you get when keeping them 133 dpi. Try it! :-)

You may not necessarily drive the press operator crazy with some of these issues, but you WILL make the prepress staff insane. Also, if you use white lettering with rich black background (knock-out text), odds are you will get misregistration (whether traditional printing methods or digital). There are also some exceptions regarding rich black and/or resolution: and that is magazine and newspaper design. When in doubt, ask your printer. They will be happy to tell you. Sorry if I repeated any of the other comments (I have to be honest, I just kinda skimmed them).

Yopu can set overprint in InDesign, Quark or Pagemaker but is no overprint in Photoshop of freehand, also overprint is a instruction that says for example if you have blue text over blue “fill everything with blue and put the black over the blue” and that what is sugested here put some other color “under” the black, then you have overprint.

You might all like to check out our Print Handbook for Designers which covers similar topics to the ones mentioned here and gives actual printed examples. Examples of things like rich black, overprinting, different dpi/ppi and more.

Instructions from the book printer for a color interior book: “The overall combined percentage of CMYK values of artwork must be less than 240%. For example, the ‘rich black’ we recommend would be 60% Cyan, 40% Magenta, 40% Yellow, 100% Black (60+40+40+100=240%). All other colors in the artwork must remain less than 240% CMYK overall color density as well.”
What is the most accurate way to adjust the overall color density in scanned watercolor artwork (Photoshop) that is placed in InDesign, converted to .ps then PDF/X-1a: 2001 (required format)? The black in some of the artwork shows green at 310 in the Output Preview and will need to be adjusted, although I’m told there is some ‘wiggle room’. How far do I need to backtrack? (I have files saved at each stage).
Professional advice for this specific type of printing would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thank you in advance for your time….